1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to power adapters and chargers for electrically-powered devices.
2. Description of Related Art
There are lots of portable devices for everyday use such as portable phones, music players, video games, calculators, portable multimedia devices, and so on. A majority of those devices are equipped with rechargeable batteries and therefore require an external power supply or a charger. During normal use, a user may use or charge a portable device various times and at various places whenever and wherever there is a need for it, whether location of use or charging may be at home, in a vehicle, in a hotel, in an airport, etc.
A typical power adapter includes AC prongs for insertion into an AC wall-mount power outlet or a DC socket for a cigarette lighter. In today's market one particularly large class of portable devices are equipped with two separate power adapters, each capable for working only with a single type of power plug insertion. One of these power adapters is for the AC wall-mount power outlet and the other is for the vehicle DC socket.
Unfortunately, there often appears a situation when a portable device has a different type of plug than what is required. As such, for many users it is preferable to have a universal power adapter to run or charge their devices on the road, in their home, in a hotel, in an airport or elsewhere. At the same time people tend to prefer power adapters/chargers to have small and compact sizes, as opposed to large and bulky sizes, that can be carried comfortably in a pocket, stored in a small space, etc. A small variety of power adapters are available for use with both types of connectors as all-in-one power adapters: for use with an AC wall-mount power outlet or a vehicle DC outlet (e.g., a car cigarette lighter) with foldable AC prongs. However, even the most compact ones of those chargers are not small enough to be carried comfortably in a pocket, in a small space, etc. In many cases the foldable prongs tend to occupy more space than their minimal theoretical size requires.